When O.B. brings the model out to talk everyone through their plan to fix the loom, he says:
“Forgive the shoddy and slapdash work. It’s not to scale, I only got one coat of paint on there. I haven’t been able to carve out figures to represent all of us. I’m honestly embarrassed that Victor is here to see it.”
Immediately, I was reminded of the scene below from “Back to the Future,” where Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) explains to Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) exactly how they’re going to use a lightning strike to power the DeLorean time machine’s flux capacitor in order to send Marty back to 1985. Here’s the clip in question:
As you can see, when Doc introduces Marty to the model, he says:
“Please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn’t have time to build it to scale or to paint it.”
In both instances, what’s hilarious is that the models are of exceptional quality, and on any other day, at any other time, the creation of these models would be seen as more than impressive. Both O.B. and Doc Brown, each geniuses in their own right, are so particular and meticulous about their work that they see an incomplete model, no matter how unnecessary the extreme detail may be, as a failure on their part. In the “Loki” scene, you can even see a sign hanging off the loom that says “NOT TO SCALE.”
You gotta love quirky nerds like this. Without them, where would the universe be?